Are Bane and/or Ra's Al Ghul racially offensive?

[Bruce Wayne]

It certainly plays into the rather racist conceptions of Middle Easterners and the rather cliche associations with terrorism.

[Powerboy]

I mean, a big Hispanic wrestler addicted to drugs, and a mixed Arab/Chinese guy based off Fu Manchu?

I have no idea if the origins of the characters were based in "racial stereotyping" or not. But there are few characters that can't be accused of racial stereotyping because you can find something about almost any character that conveniently fits a racial stereotype. If the character has one bit of background or says one word that in any way is similar to a racial stereotype, the accusation is almost inevitable.

Is Bruce Wayne a racial stereotype because he's a rich white guy?

[Powerboy]

Bane isn't a wrestler and not always done as the most villainous guy. I think both actually added diversity to Batman's rogue gallery. Two of Batman's mainest rogues are not white, like all were before the 70s.

Is Breaking Bad racially offensive? Sopranos? What do they suggest or not?

I don't know a lot about comic book Bane but, in the Dark Knight Rises, I remember people in the theater gasped when he turned out to be the guy that prevented the rape and people couldn't take him as just the cut and dried bad guy because he had believable motives for who and what he was.

[Jared]

Comic Ra's is basically Fu Manchu made immortal (and Arab/Persian instead of Chinese), with a dash of Bond Villain. (Though, arguably, Fu Manchu was a Bond Villain before there was Bond). But I don't think Ra's plays into any of the 'Yellow Peril' stuff nearly as much as Fu Manchu did originally.

Ra's actual ethnic group and original language is something he's deliberately erased from history, all we know for sure is that he's from somewhere vaguely in the Middle-East, and that Ra's Al Ghul is not his birth name. Oh, and Sensei is his father, or was pre-reboot, which complicates things, since Sensei is supposed to look Japanese, right?

The Nolan movies and Arrow TV series both make Ra's a seemingly British white guy.

Bane only looks like a real luchadore depending on how his mask his designed in any given appearance. Beyond that, virtually nothing about him even concerns his racial heritage. He's not a drug cartel guy, or a communist (or anti communit) death squad veteran, or other 'hispanic themed' villain tropes. You could transplant his origin story to the other side of the world and it changes nothing about him.

Bane isn't hispanic. He's from Brazil and the language they speak is Portuguese.

Technically, his mother is Brazilian and his father is white, if I recall correctly. But Santa Prisca is a Spanish-speaking country, and that's where he grew up.

The Mandarin is more Fu Manchu than Ra's. Ra's is more a non-denominational terrorist.

Oh, there's a denomination of sorts, the League of Assassins is basically the Church of Ra's.

[Pinsir]

I don't understand...they are both white...

[dzub]

I mean, a big Hispanic wrestler addicted to drugs, and a mixed Arab/Chinese guy based off Fu Manchu?

Bane is'nt a wrestler. he's as much brains as he is brawn.
there's stories which show that he is not dependent on Venom

It certainly plays into the rather racist conceptions of Middle Easterners and the rather cliche associations with terrorism.

Ra's was created way before people started associating Middle Easterners with Terrorism

Ra's actual ethnic group and original language is something he's deliberately erased from history, all we know for sure is that he's from somewhere vaguely in the Middle-East, and that Ra's Al Ghul is not his birth name. Oh, and Sensei is his father, or was pre-reboot, which complicates things, since Sensei is supposed to look Japanese, right?

The Nolan movies and Arrow TV series both make Ra's a seemingly British white guy.

Ra's was played by Ken Watanabe in Begins..he swapped bodies with Ducard later on

[t hedge coke]

Ra's was created way before people started associating Middle Easterners with Terrorism

Nah, his regionalism and trappings were picked for their associations and stereotypes. Not necessarily terrorism, but mysterious dangerous foreigner and the occasional Crusades overtones just highlight something that was built in from the beginning. It's not atrocious, but it's there. He's Fu Manchu (evil foreigner who isn't human the way "we" are and his inexplicable foreigny servant army), he's Dracula (another horrible foreigner and monster come with weird followers to take a chunk of London), and so on.

Ra's was played by Ken Watanabe in Begins..he swapped bodies with Ducard later on

Wasn't Watanabe just a dummy to put up front in case someone takes a shot at Ra's?

[dzub]

Nah, his regionalism and trappings were picked for their associations and stereotypes. Not necessarily terrorism, but mysterious dangerous foreigner and the occasional Crusades overtones just highlight something that was built in from the beginning. It's not atrocious, but it's there. He's Fu Manchu (evil foreigner who isn't human the way "we" are and his inexplicable foreigny servant army), he's Dracula (another horrible foreigner and monster come with weird followers to take a chunk of London), and so on.

fair enough,i would say he's more supervillain stereotypes than any racial ones.

Wasn't Watanabe just a dummy to put up front in case someone takes a shot at Ra's?

from my understanding, they swapped bodies when bruce set his house ablaze..
and in his later apperances, he was played by that liam neeson rather than ken
i might be wrong on my begins analysis but, well then that's just another reason to watch again, thanks

[Mutant God]

I don't know about Bane being a wrestler but he does have a lot in common with El Asso Wipo, who breaks people's backs with his knee lol. (MAD TV reference)

I do see the Ras comparison to Muslim Terrorist but just replace suicidal bombers with ninja assassins and Ras has his own backstory

[Jared]

from my understanding, they swapped bodies when bruce set his house ablaze..
and in his later apperances, he was played by that liam neeson rather than ken
i might be wrong on my begins analysis but, well then that's just another reason to watch again, thanks

Body-swapping isn't something that would fit in Nolan's universe, where Joker just wears facepaint and Neeson's character appears to age normally.
Plus, the flashbacks in Dark Knight Rises indicate that Ducard/Ra's was leading the League of Shadows when he was a younger man.

[dzub]

Body-swapping isn't something that would fit in Nolan's universe, where Joker just wears facepaint and Neeson's character appears to age normally.
Plus, the flashbacks in Dark Knight Rises indicate that Ducard/Ra's was leading the League of Shadows when he was a younger man.

that's right. ken was just a fall guy, my bad.

[Powerboy]

Comic Ra's is basically Fu Manchu made immortal, with a dash of Bond Villain. (Though, arguably, Fu Manchu was a Bond Villain before there was Bond). But I don't think Ra's plays into any of the 'Yellow Peril' stuff nearly as much as Fu Manchu did originally.

I think Fu Manchu did have an element of "the Immortality formula" to him. I only read a couple of chapters of one book. But at least in the Peter Sellers movie, his last movie, "The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu", he had developed an immortality formula.